It's Everywhere!

Spoiler Alert .... If you haven't seen Parenthood yet this week and would like to be surprised at what happens then hold off on reading this until you've watched it!

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Last year when I was diagnosed with breast cancer I knew nothing about it. Of course I'd heard the stats, knew that screening after 40 was important, seen the commercials, watched the pink campaign roll out every October -- but it was at arms length.

Now it's everywhere - which is what happens when you experience something. When you're pregnant, everyone is pregnant, when you have a baby, you see babies, when a family member is ill or you're ill suddenly the disease is all around you.

I know I've mentioned the show Parenthood before in passing, but I'm going to talk about it again because they've taken on a breast cancer story line. In the first episode this year, one of their main characters (a mom with 3 kids (one a baby)) discovers she has cancer.

What strikes me about this show is how accurate they've been in their portrayal of how it feels to find out you have cancer. I know every cancer story is different but this storyline is so extremely similar to my own that I can't help but be touched by it. I feel like I'm reliving last year and it's very cathartic.

I found it to be true to real life from the very beginning when the bad news is relayed in an understated real life way during an episode about really mundane family things, like coordinating schedules and deciding to buy a dog and oh by the way I just had a mammogram and I have cancer.

And then the wait for surgery and trying to fit that surgery into your normal life. Suddenly you're in this weird space where you're not really sick but you sort of are, so you go on with real life but suddenly it's all different and you cry and have this fear that you've never had before.

Then in this last episode, the good news with the bad news. The cancer is taken out and you're cancer free! But the bad news: it was aggressive and in 1 lymph node and HER2+, so you're not done yet. That confusing space of I technically don't have cancer anymore but oops - I might still have cancer floating around and its not a good kind so we're going to go after it with all we got! This was so accurate to what we went through - along with an almost identical pathology  - 1 node positive, HER2+, chemo indicated.

So if you're interested to see a fairly accurate account of what it's like to be diagnosed with breast cancer - check out Parenthood on Tuesdays on NBC at 10 or if you're in Canada you can watch it on Mondays at 10 on Global (which is how I've already seen this weeks episode).